> > The usual way of doing this is simply to create an empty file > > when the program starts and delete it when the program closes
> Couldn't this approach cause problems if the Python program crashes, > leaving behind the empty file? Yes, but its very easy for the administrator to delete the rogue file. This is how most Unix tools do it, using /tmp as the storage folder - /tmp can be purged at each reboot so ensuring a clean startup. This is simple to manage and better than writing entries to files which can get corrupted - that's much more difficult to manage. (This technique is also a mainstay of Mainframe computing and has been for over 40 years! :-) > However, there is a Cookbook solution that does, > I believe, that what the original poster asked: > http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/67663 The Mutex version is nice, I haven't seen that before. Although it will only work on Windows but since that's what the OP uses, it's not a problem. Alan G. _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
